Southern Pacific coaches with baggage elevators

Joe Magruder · **Posted:** Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:19 pm

I recall that at least some of the Southern Pacific articulated daylight coaches were built with baggage elevators that let one put luggage in at ground level and it was then somehow lifted into the baggage storage area in the car. By the time I began riding these cars in the late 50s this functionality had long since been disabled. But I wonder, does anybody have one of these cars and has anybody restored the elevator? Of course, I may have completely misinterpreted was I was seeing. (Asked by somebody obviously going a bit stir crazy at home.)

Termite7 · **Joined:** Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:29 pm **Posts:** 397

You remember correctly...they did have little dumb waiters for baggage. I think it was so the porter could help several passengers at a time with their carry-on bags. I have never seen one preserved...but I could be wrong.
T7

David Johnston · **Posted:** Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:44 pm

I believe those were the Shasta Daylight cars. There were some at Hunters Point, probably in the Golden Gate collection. I do not recall if they were complete cars. I think the way it worked is that shelves were raised as they were filled. The use did not last long due to injuries.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2020 1:54 am

Found some material on these cars and a photograph of the baggarge elevator.

https://spdaylight.net/Consist.html

Quote:

In this outside view you see the vestibule with the steps in the up position and the baggage door open with the shelves lowered and the interior doors closed. The rectangular box to the right of the baggage door is the elevator control box with four large black buttons inside marked DOOR UP, DOOR DOWN, SHELVES UP, and SHELVES DOWN. Below the control box is a small covered opening that looks like an electrical outlet, but actually is the emergency shelf mechanism. If the power failed or something jammed, the porter could insert a crank, similar to a carpenter's brace, and move the shelves up or down manually. The baggage elevator was designed to keep baggage from pilling up on the vestibules and blocking the smooth flow of passengers on and off the train. This made it possible at stops for the Daylight to exchange upwards of 300 passengers in about five minutes, thus keeping to the rapid 9 hour 45 minute schedule. Note the round loading step light adjacent to the vestibule, perfect for night time operations, however seldom were these cars used in the dark.

Quote:

At the forward end of the ACW car are the baggage elevator compartments. They were on both sides of the car. This view reveals the left side baggage elevator in the starting or down position. When a shelf was loaded, the elevator would lift it toward the roof so the next tier could be racked. The door in the center leads to the vestibule where passengers would enter/exit the car.

Quote:

In this view, the baggage elevator is in the up position. Baggage was easily accessible to the passenger and to the porter for sorting. The slots in the side walls where the upper shelf was attached to the worm screws was filled with rubber flaps to cover them. Over the door opening were three pilot lights and a button. The lights, from left to right, read DOOR SWITCH CLOSED, SHELF SWITCH CLOSED, and OUTSIDE DOOR OPEN. The button says simply, TO CLOSE OUTSIDE DOOR. This served as a reminder to the porters who sometimes forgot to close the door.

Quote:

Interior doors to the baggage compartment were closed while the train was in motion. These doors were made up of vertical aluminum slats hinged together to form a smooth closure. If the baggage was stacked carelessly, this prevented it from falling into the aisle. The smooth closure also added to the overall decor, again stressing SP's attention to detail.

Other material.

https://spdaylight.net/Service.html

Quote:

Here you see one of the Porters operating the Baggage Elevator. This was an SP invention for the new 1939 and 1941 passenger cars. After a shelf was loaded, the Porter would push a button for the shelf to rise up, exposing the next shelf to load up with baggage.

Quote:

On the other side of the Baggage Elevator inside the car, the Porter could re-adjust the baggage for safe travel or retrieve a passenger's baggage if needed.

Home page for the above links and photographs.

https://spdaylight.net/Welcome.html

And finally, some commentary on these devices from Railway Age.

https://books.google.com/books?id=PuslA ... or&f=false

Doug Debs 2472 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:34 am

Articulated coach S.P. 2473-2474 is alive and well at Niles Canyon Railway. The baggage elevators and exterior elevator doors were removed in 1963 when the car was stripped of the clipped-on fluted stainless-steel decorative siding (pretty but not watertight), and the internal carbody corrosion damage was repaired. The original sididng was replaced with riveted-on thin stainless-steel sheet.

https://www.ncry.org/about/collection/passenger/southern-pacific-2473-2474/

Southern Pacific 2473-2474
Technical Data

Builder Pullman
Class 66-ACM-2/66-ACW-2
Date 1941
Length 132′
Weight 2473 (ACM) 99,200 pounds / 2474 (ACW) 98,800 pounds
Acquired March 2008

History

This car was part of a series of cars built new for the Southern Pacific Railroad for Daylight service between San Francisco and Los Angeles It was originally built with fluted sides but like many SP cars was rebuilt with flat stainless steel sides. This car was rebuilt on 7/19/63. The car was still in service in 1970 and was not sold to Amtrak in 1971, but held by Southern Pacific.

Although built for the Coast Daylight, this car served on other SP trains. For example it was in this Sacramento Daylight consist from June 27th, 1968:

SP 3010: GP9, Scarlet and Gray (ex-SP 3422, ex-SP 5893, ex-TNO 283)
SP 3303: 79-CB-1, Stainless Steel sides, SSS Scheme
SP 2473-74: 66-ACM/ACW-2, Stainless Steel sides, SSS Scheme

This car was then sold to the Algoma Central Railway of Canada in 1974 and renumbered 458-459. Bytown Railway Society purchased the car in 1988 and sold it to Golden Gate Railroad Museum in 1996. And, PLA purchased it from the GGRM in March 2008.

Initial restoration work by the PLA at Brightside allowed the car to return to operational status on the Niles Canyon Railroad in November, 2008.

Since 2008 major restoration work on the car has continued. All of the seats have been reupholstered and the interior has had the many layers of paint removed. In 2011, the car was removed from active service and major repair of the roof was accomplished. This included adding new material at the roof line, fabricating new material around the A/C access covers and application of a 20 year roof coating. The exterior stainless steel was cleaned and the proper red stripe and lettering applied. The vestibules and car ends were painted in simulated stainless steel. In 2012 interior restoration continued with focus on the men’s and women’s restrooms and painting of the interior of one of the cars. The car returned to service for the 2012 Train of Lights."

Thomas Cornillie · **Joined:** Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:19 pm **Posts:** 272

Back in 2006 there was a thread about a SP coach at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield, CA.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21562

A roster reference noted that this car had a baggage elevator.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140220203828/http://webpages.charter.net/altalair/sp_equipment.html

I was able to find one photo of this car as preserved: https://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=5cd6faee-dcd2-4fa6-abcc-e1c026b2e780

via: https://sites.google.com/site/railwaypreservationphotoindex/by-railroad/southern-pacific

Does anyone know if this car retained its baggage elevator to the end of service? Does this car still exist?

Topfuel · **Joined:** Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:49 pm **Posts:** 529

Most SP coaches built starting in 1939 for the Coast Daylight, San Joaquin Daylight, and Shasta Daylight had the SP-designed baggage elevators. The last cars built with them were the 10 cars built by PS for the Shasta and Coast Daylights in 1954.

When the baggage elevators were discontinued, I understand that they were kept in service on individual cars until there was a problem with them, then they were blanked and the various components related to the elevators was supposed to be removed. However, this depended on who was in charge of the shop that day. Some cars simply had the exterior door and control switch openings blanked, but everything was still intact behind the blanking plates. On other cars Company Policy was followed and most of the equipment was removed.

So today, of the few SP non-Budd coaches that still exist, a few have all of their luggage elevator equipment intact (including the quite complicated DC electronics above the ceiling in the entrance area just inside the end doors) and could be made operational with little work. The only related item I have never seen on an existing SP coach is the sliding aluminum doors inside the cars that was usually closed after each stop. Those seem to have been removed on every car, though the tracks can still be seen.